Our Latest Travels - Whyalla Day 2

Our second day in Whyalla was one of playing the tourist, going on two guided tours.  

To put things in context, I’ll start with a potted history of the town.  The settlement of “Hummock Hill” was always an industrial town, established by BHP to ship out iron ore mined in the nearby Middleback Ranges.  The first shipload set sail in 1903 for Port Pirie, across the Spencer Gulf to be used as flux in the lead smelter.  The name changed to “Whyalla” in 1920 and at about that time shipments of ore started to head to the newly established Newcastle Steelworks.  In 1939 a harbour and steel blast furnace were built and a new shipyard was established, using skilled ship builders from England, as well as local labour.  Water supply was always a problem, with water being shipped to the town from Port Pirie.  In 1943 a pipeline was established to bring water from Morgan on the Murray River, being 360kms long.  The steelworks commenced production in 1965.  At its peak in 1976, the town’s population was 38,000, with plans drawn up to prepare for a projected population of 100,000.  Shipbuilding ceased in 1978, as they were no longer able to compete on the world market and the town had a sharp decline.  The steelworks has also declined, changing hands from BHP to OneSteele in 2012, and going into receivership in 2016.  It has now been bought by a UK owner and renamed Liberty Primary Steel and Mining.  The new owners have plans of spending a squillion dollars to upgrade the steel mill to modern standards and using sustainable energy sources as well as investing in the planned hydrogen hub at Port Bonython.  If all goes to plan, it should help revive the town.

Our first tour was of the steelworks.  As I said, it opened in 1965, using iron ore from the nearby Middleback Ranges and coal from Leigh Creek, north of the Flinders Ranges.  That mine has now closed down, so I don’t know where the coal comes from.  It also uses a lot of scrap iron.

The steelworks cover a site 10ha in size.  It directly employs 1,400 people, with a further 1,300 contractors working on site.

It’s big.  It’s dirty.  I can’t imagine how hot it must be in the summer months.

I couldn’t really understand the steel making process, so here is a diagram that I found here.

This long structure on the left is the coke ovens.  Coal is put into the ovens and the gas, water and tar are removed, leaving coke.

The reason I show this, is that since our recent visit they have been closed down.  I just read that they closed on 15 September, after 55 years and 55 days of operation.  The closure is the first stage in the new owner’s plans to be Carbon Neutral by 2030.  A low carbon emission Electric Arc Furnace has been ordered to replace the coke-fired blast furnaces and is planned to be up and running by 2025.

On an aside, when I was growing up my Dad worked at the local gasworks, where coke was the byproduct.  Our heaters were fuelled by coke, which burned hotter and cleaner than coal and didn’t have that smelly yellow smoke. Our paling fences were alway painted with creosote, another byproduct of gas and coke producing, as a wood preservative.

Here is some of the end product.

Whyalla makes all of the railway lines and steel sleepers for Australia.

Although, I didn’t understand much of the process, it was really interesting to see where they make steel.  It still amazes me that the local environment around the area is still so pristine, with such a large industrial site in town.

After the steelworks tour, it was back to the information centre for our next tour.

Remember I said they started ship building in 1939.  Well, the first vessel to be completed was the aptly named “Whyalla”, which was a Bathurst Class corvette, launched in 1941.  She was used by the Australian Navy as a minesweeping vessel.

Fortunately, she survived the war, having come under attack twice, once when in Sydney Harbour when the Japanese mini subs came in and again in the northern waters.  No personnel were lost, which is a great result for surviving the war.

After the war she was sold to the Victorian Public Works Department, renamed “Rip” and used as a maintenance vessel, mainly for dredging.  She was retired from that role in 1984.  The Whyalla council got wind of that and negotiated to purchase her and bring her back to Whyalla.  

It wasn’t until 1987 that she finally came home.  They showed us a video of the process.  Blimey!  What an exercise.  

It actually proved to be more difficult than anticipated.    

She is positioned right next to the shipyard when she was built, on the northern approach to town.  The information centre was built beside her.

After she was manoeuvred into position, the next job was to restore her to nearly the original condition, as there had been several modifications over the years.  The couple staying in the caravan next to us at Streaky Bay were from Whyalla and he had been a TAFE teacher at the time.  He and his students had been involved in that restoration.

It was interesting having a look around her.  At times she was used to transport troops, with up to 150 men being on board.  It must have been so cramped.  There were photos of them in the mess room, sleeping in hammocks, as well as on and under tables.

Imagine catering for so many out of this tiny galley.

The cabins for the officers were a little more luxurious.  The cabinetry was very well set out.

It would be hot work down in the engine room.

Up in the bridge, everything is constructed of timber or brass.  This is not just for looks, it is so the compass isn’t affected.  The things you learn.

Downstairs there is a second place that the ship can be steered from, if necessary.  

The tour was really interesting.

Next, we took a walk through the adjoining gardens to visit the Maritime Museum.  It is housed in the building that was the original recreation hall for the shipyards.

Look at that original floor.

From its beginning in 1939 until its closure in 1978, 66 vessels were built in Whyalla, including warships, bulk carriers, tankers, ferries, container ships, barges and an oil rig.  They had models of a lot of them on the rear wall.  It’s a pretty impressive achievement for one small town.

Mick was taken with the model railway layout, depicting the local area.

By then, we were ready for lunch, so headed to the local wetlands and their lovely cafe.  The wetlands are manmade and are a part of their storm water harvesting scheme.  Whyalla has an average rainfall of just under 300mm for the year.  We can understand why they are very popular with the locals.

In the afternoon, we ventured up to Hummock Hill lookout.  Here you can get a good overview of the steelworks on one side.

On the other side you can see the circular jetty and the marina.  

We realised the water was really shallow on the beach behind the caravan park, but this really emphasised it.

You have to do the cheesy photo op, don’t you.

As Whyalla was of such military importance during WWII, there were gun emplacements added to the top of Hummock Hill.  While this one retains its gun, others have been converted to picnic shelters.

The only wall art we saw that day was actually in the caravan park. Colourful, isn’t it.

To finish off our day we took a drive just on dark to revisit the circular jetty.

From their, we drove up to Hummock Hill again.

 The steel works are somewhat transformed.

And the Marina and Jetty.

Even the anti aircraft gun looked good at night.

Our evening drive was a nice way to finish our time at Whyalla.  We were ready to hit the road once more.